Maybe it was necessary for legal reasons to make the badge different, in order to establish the new company, or summat. Changing the subject a bit, does anyone know if the club is now using an exclusive red, and if not, why not. I didn't know if you could copyright a colour, however I found this, albeit applying to the US:

"You can protect a color, as in Coke Red, Barbie Pink or John Deere Green,
without any registration of copyright, trademark or patent, through the
doctrine of "trade dress," which has been around for a long time. In 1995
the Supreme Court case of Qualitex Co. v. Jacobson Products Co. ruled that
a single color can be trademarked, adding the additional protections
provided by registration."

I wonder if this is an age issue again as I have always hated the new 1986 badge.
The club shop once sold scarves with club formed in 1876 written on because the company that made them thought that 1986 must have been an error as the club had been around so long.No one at the club had noticed until Sherlock here pointed it out to them.
I would prefer the pre 1986 badge But the badge we have now is not that bad and I quite like it.
And before anybody asks YES I do have it tattooed on my arm.

Yeah but it's our f*cking badge, us, the people from Middlesbrough who should have a big f*cking say about what it looks like. It's meant to be the epitomy of what the club stands for and with all due respect to whoever designed the new badge, it is beyond appalling!!

People on here who have told the Seville story are broadly right, and the new badge was supposed to be "retro".

I'm pretty sure I know who was responsible for the decision and I'm pretty sure what the decision was (give it to one of the lads, anybody can do that).

The first attempt was a complete and total mess, but the club had already unveiled it to the crowd. So they got on to Hillprint (program printers among other things) and asked their designers if they could try to tidy it up, but the design had been publicised and had to stay.

Hillprint did what they could, but there's only so much you can do with a mess like that.

isnt he fordy's son? its a really weird decision that. a company logo should be designed by professionals. it always goes wrong companys have some sort of staff competition to design a new logo or slogan.

Chelsea did rip it off, straight after. I'm a mate of the original designer and he put a great deal of work and thought into the 1986 badge ensuring that the image would spell out Middlesbrough at any size and on any background.

More or less everyone who has posted on this thread has stated that the current badge is pathetic, hopefully the club might take note of this and listen to the fans, and in the near future might take action regarding the current badge.

Like Keith Lamb said on bbc tees last week, the club belongs to the fans and it seems to me reading through this thread that the majority detest the current badge, lets see how much they really listern to the fans concerning the club badge.

The current badge looks like it has been designed by Prontaprint (no offence to Prontaprint). It has no depth and designed without rationale. The brief should have been given to a design house and should have included (IMO): Elements that reflect the history of the area, A distinctive typographic style and an enduring design style (unlike the current attempt that will be re-designed within 10 years).

Have to agree with Benny_Blanco, I have collected Boro badges for over 30 years, got a good collection of badges before 86 & after but not one of the present badge, nor do I intend to buy one, utter rubbish

Can Gibson change the club badge straight away or is there a contract that says we must have that design for so many years, would have to change alot of merchandise, could be done at the end of next season if we go back up.

They did yes - the adidas effect - but I wonder whether if there was a much bigger poll conducted whehter changing the badge would have the same impact again. Or is everyone on here just contrary and retro? (Old fashioned?) It could be, I suppose.

if you had a much bigger poll the results would be something on the lines of:

new one - 5%
keep existing one - 10%
couldnt give a toss cos i've got a life and there are more important things to worry about at the moment such as who is going to score the goals to get promoted next season - 85%

The vast majority of fans want the badge to be changed, it's no surprise really as the current badge is pathetic.

Rob,

As Bukowski has stated - Is there some way this poll can be put forward to the club? I would like to think that the club may listen to the fans views, they may then consider changing the badge in the very near future.

The 1986 design was/is a truly great piece of work. The old "ships" badge is good, but isn't as effective as a readable piece of branding. There's a good reason for Chelski nicking the 1986 badge....it works.

A good deal started to go wrong when the badge and the white band were messed with. It was a symptom of a disconnect between club and fans. Handing something as important as "brand identity" to someone in-house is just silly/amateur.

The message is for Mr. Gibson..marketing faux-pas aside, just give the fans what they want-- and stop listening to poison ivy good for nothing branding consultants-- and wasting turnstile money on elements that do more harm than good. The badge change coincided with our slide from grace-- there was no ryhmn or reason why you had to make such a change-- I'm sure that the extra change paying the branding consultants would have been better spent on keeping the likes of Cattermole and Schwarzer at the club-- now we've lost AJ. In future be wary of fluff changes, as they do more harm than good-- stick to the fundermentals that got us in the EPL.

A logo should transcend personal likes and dislikes. It should, however, have some meaning and be a reflection of the product. In this case it is the town of Middlesbrough and the surrounding area. I believe that the badge should represent that and the people that live in it. It should reflect our industry and heritage and culture.
It will be waaayyyy too late to change it for the coming season but an appropriate design house should be briefed immediately with a view to getting it onto shirts the season after next. PLEASE! No more amateur attempts...No more somebodies son who got a CSE grade 4 in art.